You just need to visit a few guitar forums and you'll quickly see that there is an obscene number of guitarists wanting to increase their alternate picking speed. And hey…who am I to judge? After all, developing fast picking chops definitely allows you to play licks and solos that were previously impossible. Not to mention that rapid machine-gun picking also sounds really cool. :-) (You only need to listen to Paul Gilbert to get proof of this!).
So how do you increase your alternate picking speed? Well, unfortunately there's no magic bullet. It takes a lot of blood, sweat and tears! To become an alternate picking monster takes most players years of consistent practice.
With that said, here are a couple of tips that will help…
Click Here To Continue Reading: Two Powerful Tips To Increase Your Alternate Picking Speed….
OK…I'm a little bit embarrassed to admit this. I'm definitely not proud of it. And I'm not sure if I should share this with you. But, here it goes anyway…
When I first started to learn to alternate I was after looking for a quick fix. I was looking for some special, powerful and almost magical alternate picking exercise that would fix all my problems. I wanted to discover an exercise that would transform me into an alternate picking beast! I wanted to uncover some kind of secret exercise that would help me pick as fast as a machine gun. 
So what happened?
Click Here To Continue Reading: Is There Really A Magical Alternate Picking Exercise?…
If you've been searching online for alternate picking exercises, then you probably have noticed something-there is a heck of a lot of them! In fact, there are so many it can be totally overwhelming! And this feeling of overwhelm can cause you to ask yourself questions such are…
- What specific alternate picking exercises should I practice to get the greatest results?
- How do I find out what the best ones are for me?
- What alternate picking exercises are useful for me, and which ones are a total waste of my time?
I feel that these questions are very valid. All of us have a limited time for alternate picking practice. And I'm pretty sure you don't want to waste your practice time on exercises that don't work!
Click Here To Continue Reading: What Alternate Picking Exercises Are Best For You?…
If you're new to alternate picking then you might be asking yourself what's the best pick to use to alternate pick fast. Well, it's definitely not an easy question to answer. It's a bit like asking what car is best for driving fast. (There are plenty that would get the job done!).
With that said, let's take a look at the type of pick that I use. I've been using this type for a long time. And it's the one that I recommend to my students all the time. (Especially if one of their goals is to pick at blazingly fast speeds).
So what pick am I talking about?
Click Here To Continue Reading: What Are The Best Guitar Picks For Fast Alternate Picking?…
If you've been learning lead guitar for a while you may have come across the technique "alternate picking". And like many guitar techniques, it can be a bit confusing if you haven't done it before.
So what is it?
Simply put, alternate picking is when you play something using alternating downstrokes and upstrokes of your pick. For example: If you wanted to play a four-note lead guitar lick using this technique you would do the following…
Click Here To Continue Reading: What Is Alternate Picking?…
Let's face it. Most of us (including myself!) often feel discomfort when making big changes to the way that we do things. And this is especially true when learning electric guitar. It is all too easy to let our comfort zone and avoidance of discomfort stop us from making the progress on guitar that we deserve.
Click Here To Continue Reading: Learning Electric Guitar - Are You Letting Your Discomfort B*t*ch-Slap You?…
Learning to improvise lead guitar solos can be an extremely rewarding experience. There's an amazing feeling when you manage to play something off-the-cuff that sounds great. At the same time, learning to improvise can also be an incredibly frustrating experience at times. I'm sure almost every guitarist has gone through phases of feeling like they can't express themselves how they would ideally like. (I know that I have certainly felt frustrated with my improvising at times!).
Click Here To Continue Reading: Lead Guitar Improvisation - Are You Expecting A Magic Bullet?…
Let's face it…the reason why most people pick up the electric guitar initially is to learn songs. I know that's what I did. When I first started playing guitar my goal was to play the songs of my favorite band (which at the time was Metallica). And I had a lot of fun doing it!
As well as doing it for the fun aspect, learning guitar songs can be tremendous for building your guitar technique. Each song you learn can provide valuable technical training that elevates your overall guitar playing. (If you learn the song in a way that builds technique).
Click Here To Continue Reading: Are You Effectively Building Technique When Learning Guitar Songs?…
Are you learning jazz but don't know what jazz guitar scales you need to master first? Are you overwhelmed with how many jazz guitar scales you need to learn? If you answered yes to either question, then you are in the right place!
Where Jazz Guitar Scales Are Used
This might be stating the totally obvious, but I'll say it anyway. Jazz guitar scales are used to solo over jazz chord progressions. It's hardly an earth-shattering statement, but it does bring up a really good point…
To find out what jazz guitar scales you need to learn, you first need to think of what chord progressions you are going to solo over.
Click Here To Continue Reading: Jazz Guitar Scales - Where The Heck Do I Start?…
Most guitar players who have been playing lead guitar for a while have come across these two pentatonic scales…
These are both extremely useful scales for many styles of guitar playing. And they are definitely the pentatonic scales that I recommend learning and mastering first.
But did you realize that there are many other different types of pentatonic guitar scales?
Click Here To Continue Reading: A Very Cool Pentatonic Guitar Scale: The In-Sen Scale…
